Tag Archives: toyportfolio.com

Math Phobic? Here's a Great Math Game

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My friend Lisa could attest to the fact that I was extremely math phobic as a kid. It just wasn’t my thing. My mother was great on the early hands-on math lessons…fractions were taught with Hersey’s chocolate bars. Leave it to her to find a fun connection to chocolate! But I never could get that chocolate rush when doing factors or geometry…

If this sounds remotely familiar–I have a game that makes practicing your math skills fun….really. Double Shutter is an updated version of an old pub game called Shut the Box. Here the game comes with two rows of numbered tiles. Roll the dice and then flip down the numbers you come up with…now you can play by adding, multiplying, dividing, or subtracting the numbers on the dice. I prefer the addition level. The object is to be the first one to flip down all the tiles. From Blue Orange Games (there are two versions — a jr. version has only one row of numbers).

Great Digital Camera for Kids: Disney Pix Jr.

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If you’re in the market for a digital camera for your child this year, we love the quality and features of the new Disney Pix Jr. and now the price has just been knocked down from $59.99 to $49.99. For a full review of all of its features, go to our site of Platinum Award Winners.

Top Rated Green Toys

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We’ve been bombarded with green marketing this year…some products are well meaning but have really heavy handed messages. With that in mind we looked for toys that represent a more planet friendly agenda in how they are manufactured, as well as toys that do deliver a message but in a child friendly way…Here are our favorites:

1. Parking Garage (Plan Toys)

2. Tonka Lil Gas Pump (Hasbro) – it shows how ethanol is made on the back of the pump.

3. Sprig Vehicles (Sprig)- new line of vehicles made from recycled materials.

4. Gator Golf (Hasbro)- The classic game is now made without batteries.

5. Indoor Gardening Kit (Green Toys)- made from repurposed materials.

6. Think Green Barbie – love that she’s joined this important cause…her motto…”Think Pink, Live Green”

7. National Geographic Kids Animals (International Playthings)- polar bears and snakes–oh my!

8. Cheekeyes Animals (Cheekeyes)- handsomely crafted line of wooden animals – perfect as props for blocks.

9. Recycling Truck (Playmobil)- a fun prop for pretend that reinforces what we all should be doing.

10. Eric Carle Brown Bear Floor Puzzle (Mudpuppy)- a friendly low key way of introducing kids to the creatures we share this planet with…without a heavy message.

Sprig Vehicles Deliver

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One of the bright spots at toy fair this year was a new company called Sprig- started by a group of innovative toy industry veterans with a commitment to a green line.  The first rollout so to speak is a line of vehicles designed for the preschool crowd.  The smaller vehicles were a huge hit with our testers–they are chunky and easy to handle.  The vehicles are made of a composite of recycled milk jugs, bottles and reclaimed pine sawdust.  The faceless action figures have a very contemporary look to them. The coloration (they don’t add paint) is muted and looks related to the color palette of the Ugly Dolls collection. For more info visit toyportfolio.com and sprigwood.com.

New Puppet Theater from Step2

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We’re big on puppet theaters as a great prop for your family’s own shows. The new Puppet Theater from Step 2 is small in scale– really on the mark for the 3-5 crowd. The small plastic theater comes with with two sides that fold out, a stage curtain and two hand puppets. There’s also a dry-erase board for posting the name and time of your show. Our only complaint is that the nifty light that you’re suppose to attach above the theater really requires a power drill since the holes for the screws are not pre-drilled. For many folks this won’t be an issue, but if you’re not great with power tools – it can be challenging. Our testing family came up with attaching the light with Velcro – a clever alternative. The light itself is a nice addition. You can pair this theater with some of the great puppets we have reviewed from Gund, Manhattan Toy and Folkmanis.

Teddy Bears – Still a good gift?

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We’re asked this question every year — mostly by grandparents and aunt/uncles that want to do the right thing. A soft huggable bear that can say whatever your child wants it to say is a great gift! For kids under three you need to be sure that the bear in question is age graded for all ages. Eyes need to be anchored and ribbons need to be absolutely secure. Fuzzy bears are not great for kids that still mouth their toys – you don’t want your child to get a hairball of bear fuzz. We’re not big on “teaching bears” that are meant for practicing zipping, buttoning and tying –these skills are better learned with real clothes and shoes!

Each year we have a Bear of the Year…this year it is Mary Meyer’s Big Ben Bear. Last year’s over-sized Creamy Bear (also from Mary Meyer) is the first thing every child goes to and hugs when they visit our office!

At our house we are huge fans of Gund’s Blue Chip Snuffles (technically a polar bear). My older son received his first Snuffles on his first birthday–over the years we had an entire family of polar bears that had their own language and own tv show. The dramatic play of the polar bears became a nightly ritual for my boys.

Great Toys for Encouraging Crawling

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Now that babies are put in cribs on their backs (for safety reasons)…they aren’t crawling as early or in the same way (we get so many reports of that half scrunching across the floor). Because babies are not having a lot of tummy time–those muscles that are used for crawling are not being used as often.

Finding toys that will encourage that up and forward motion are even more important. We got several new rolling toys this season–our favorite is the new Lamaze Fun Mirror Crawl Toy from Learning Curve ($29).

Another fun choice is Follow Me Fred or Crawl Along Leo from Tiny Love. Both move slowly across the floor-encouraging babies to follow along.

Election Toys and Books

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With so much interest in the elections this year, it’s a great opportunity to bring your kids into the process.

1. Read a book about one of the candidates. There are new picture books about Obama, McCain and Clinton. While we have seen books for adults about Governor Palin, the children’s book industry is not that speedy. For reviews visit www.toyportfolio.com.

2. Play a game. With all the discussion of blue and red states-here’s a perfect opportunity to work on those state skills. Some of our favorite games are on our website.

3.Put a map up – have your kids track the states. Where does Grandma live? Red? Blue? Battleground?

4. Volunteer–it’s not too late. Showing your kids that everyone can make a difference can begin with grassroots support activities.

5. Take them to vote. One of my favorite activities as kid was pulling the lever. Most voting districts will allow you to take your child into the voting booth. They also have sample paper ballots so that your child can also “vote”.

New Toy Safety Standard Announced

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So we’re  delighted to announce that we reached a safety standard for this holiday season with a large number of toy companies (both large and small). We’ve been working on this issue since the end of last year’s holiday season.

As you may recall our Platinum Award winners last year were tested with two independent labs.  The final list included products that were determined to be lead free. We thought we could continue this policy but soon discovered  that there can be trace amounts of lead.  As a result, toy companies would not sign our safety verification form.  We then moved to the American Academy of Pediatrics definition of trace amounts at 40 ppm.   Several companies signed off at this level but not the majority. We spoke to many  quality assurance managers — they all said basically the same thing–that there could be contamination in the toy making process that could easily bring a toy above the 40 ppm.  At this point, we felt as if we were back where we started. Do we not review products? How would that work when it excluded many of the major toy companies.

After several weeks–we got a consensus.   We now require companies to verify the following:

products do not exceed 100ppm  for surface coated lead

products do not exceed 200ppm for substrate lead

product meets California’s law on phthalates

This is really a stop gap measure until the federal legislation kicks in (assuming the President signs the bill). We can not independently verify by testing the products we receive- but we have gotten companies to sign our form!

The federal legislation is chockful of good things from our point of view: mandatory third party testing, standards for testing; fines for non-compliance and more resources and oversight for the CPSC. What you may not know is that the lead levels for the bill are phased in–600ppm within 180 days of enactment; 300ppm within one year of enactment and 100ppm in three years.

So we were really pleased that we got so many companies to agree to the lower levels for this holiday season. As much as we’d love to claim victory–the pressure comes from a greater source in the free market system…the retailers responding to the demands of their consumers.

So now we can get back to looking at toys in terms of their play value.

As I write this, the cartons of new products are arriving-there are the new potty doll contenders, new wooden trains, new baby toys… It feels like the North Pole – fun, but not to worry, we’re working very hard!

Planning a Pirate Party?

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Just in, and really cute– Pin the Parrot on the Pirate game from eeBoo.  If you’re planning a pirate filled birthday bash-this variation on Pin the Tail on the Donkey will be a great party game. Comes complete with a green bandanna — the goal here is to take one of the “parrot” stickers and land him on the Pirate’s shoulder.